Did you know that some of Bukowski's poems have been set to music, for jazz band and choir? The recording was made by an English choir, Hertfordshire Chorus, and the settings composed by an American-born jazz pianist, Roland Perrin. The album is called 'songs from the cage' and you can listen/buy downloads from iTunes or Amazon.
Bukowski poems set to music
- Thread starter Louise HC
- Start date
I just listened to a couple of the samples from www.rolandperrin.com/music.html (songs from the cage for choir and big band, words from poetry by Charles Bukowski)
I tried 'roll the dice' and 'my garden'.
I have no idea what anyone involved with those recordings was thinking.
Sorry, no sale.
I tried 'roll the dice' and 'my garden'.
I have no idea what anyone involved with those recordings was thinking.
Sorry, no sale.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
I haven't listened, so maybe it's great stuff, but I've never seen the point of setting any poetry to music, nor songs based on non-musical writings. To me, lyrics are one thing, poetry another, each having almost nothing to do with each other. It always feels like the musician is just looking for a marketing hook, and the poetry is the hook. Why not just read the poems? -- that's where the action is. If you want songs, listen to songs. Of course, there's the rare songwriter who is a poet -- Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan -- but most lyrics exist mainly to carry a tune.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
So that we have full disclosure; what is your relationship to this release? If it is you, or your family member, just say so. Otherwise, it is seen as subterfuge and we hate to be toyed with. Nothing wrong with shilling your own stuff, but to pretend that you just happened to run across this and are trying to help us out when the actual goal is to sell us is quite another thing.
Thanks,
Bill
Thanks,
Bill
mjp
Founding member
Do we really have to ask? It's a by-the-numbers "look what I found!" (and here's where you can buy it) shill.
not unlike the tragic events of 911, as much as we may try to block it out, we are all painfully aware of such brutal reality.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
Speaking of full disclosure, almost all of my posts (well, not this one) are made between 5 and 6 AM, before I've had a full cup of coffee, and I write a lot of dumb, cranky, wrong and plain zoomy stuff. Just want everyone here to know that I realize how off the mark I often am. There, I feel better. I still don't care much for poems set to music. The poem, if it's any good, sure doesn't need the music. Most the time, it's the music needing the poem.
Tried roll the dice, also, and I've no idea how there could even be an audience for this dreadful stuff. I'm holding out for a Black Metal band to set The Bluebird to music.
Think you're being a little too hard on yourself. Never read your posts and thought similar. I'm trying to curtail the boozed-up stupid gibberish I've often posted (failed miserably there yesterday - Guinness and soccer, Wheee!). I'm lacking in standards. Now I'm just going to post sober stupid gibberish.
mjp
Founding member
Yeah there's nothing worse than a forum thread with 20 posts in it but the person who started the thread deleted their post, or replaced it with "never mind."
Well, there is one thing worse: setting Bukowski's poems to music. Where's the control for that? I want to turn it off...
Well, there is one thing worse: setting Bukowski's poems to music. Where's the control for that? I want to turn it off...
C
Composer
@Rekrab, I would have agreed with you 100% five years ago, before I rediscovered Buk. I've always hated listening to "classical" (for want of a better term) settings of poetry; Elliot Carter desecrating Emily Dickenson comes to mind immediately. It usually works only when the composer is great and the poetry isn't (Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, for example).
But then I picked up Love is a Dog From Hell, and I found myself hearing melodies and rhythms as I read, and writing notes (both kinds) in the margins. So much of his work, especially from that period, is just so LYRICAL that I couldn't resist setting several, from five different volumes. What's resulted so far is a strange composition, 12 poems plus two instrumental movements, in a style I can't identify as sounding like anything I've ever heard, my own work included. I won't say more, because the point of this post is not to advertise it, and in any case I'm still awaiting permission to use the poems (and to learn if I can even afford the cosrt of securing rights).
So I think some of his poems work very well as lyrics. Of course they can, and have been set horribly in the past. I won't name names, but Buk himself describes his feelings hilariously in How to get rid of the purists.
But then I picked up Love is a Dog From Hell, and I found myself hearing melodies and rhythms as I read, and writing notes (both kinds) in the margins. So much of his work, especially from that period, is just so LYRICAL that I couldn't resist setting several, from five different volumes. What's resulted so far is a strange composition, 12 poems plus two instrumental movements, in a style I can't identify as sounding like anything I've ever heard, my own work included. I won't say more, because the point of this post is not to advertise it, and in any case I'm still awaiting permission to use the poems (and to learn if I can even afford the cosrt of securing rights).
So I think some of his poems work very well as lyrics. Of course they can, and have been set horribly in the past. I won't name names, but Buk himself describes his feelings hilariously in How to get rid of the purists.
mjp
Founding member
Oh, you think they work well as lyrics. Okay. Well, that's much different than those others. You know, the ones who don't have your talent and insight.
Carry on! The world awaits - no, needs - your inspired work! I, for one, cannot wait to hear it.
Mainly so I can confirm that it stinks, and you, personally, are a pretentious douchebag. Like the people described in the poem you cite. The ones Bukowski sought to, "antagonize, deplete, expose and shame." But you don't see the irony there, because, naturally, he wasn't talking about you. You're different.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
Have you contacted HarperCollins? They should get back to you. They will probably want $10,000 for rights to put it to music, but I cannot see them just refusing to give you an amount.
mjp
Founding member
Well, he does have "deep pockets," so ten grand is nothing to him.
I can't wait to hear the baritone voice, not unlike that of VALERIAN, masterfully reciting the words.
I can't wait to hear the baritone voice, not unlike that of VALERIAN, masterfully reciting the words.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
I forgot about the 50/50 offer. I would be floored if HarperCollins took an offer that clearly:
1) Would not make them more than $50 - $100.
2) Would require them to either write off what they felt was owed or sue you for said $50 - $100.
Harper has people in the business that know that this will not sell. They NEVER do. They would be insane to attach a business decision to the success of a project which is guaranteed to NOT be a success. That is why they always want the money up front.
Get Lady Gaga to sing Bukowski poems and you could MAYBE turn a profit.
Bill
1) Would not make them more than $50 - $100.
2) Would require them to either write off what they felt was owed or sue you for said $50 - $100.
Harper has people in the business that know that this will not sell. They NEVER do. They would be insane to attach a business decision to the success of a project which is guaranteed to NOT be a success. That is why they always want the money up front.
Get Lady Gaga to sing Bukowski poems and you could MAYBE turn a profit.
Bill
Muh-muh-muh-muh-muh-muh my beer shit.
but that only makes sense if you know the song Pokerface, which hopefully you don't. heh.
Hooch, you have way too much mother-fucking time on your hands.
C
Composer
@mjp: I'm truly surprised by the vicious tone of your post, since my point was that poetry can sometimes be set to music effectively, and I provided one example generally considered a masterpiece. I'm not offended by your amusing comparison of me to a feminine hygiene appliance; I've been insulted before by people of slighty above-average intelligence who use hackneyed phrases from second-rate action movies, believing that tearing down others makes them rise in stature. Or perhaps you simply enjoy coming here anonymously to adopt a faux-Bukowski persona. In any case, I've provided no profile information, so you're speaking from ignorance, and you know what they say about ASSUME. I am, however disappointed, that your mind seems completely closed to the possibility that someone could do a good job.
Is my project any better than the Vehar/Ruminski "art songs"? I certainly hope so! I wanted to avoid anything like that, and from the beginning I've worked with a singer who is, to say the least, completely different, a reknowned composer and jazz pianist with extensive experience singing rock & roll. The "baritone" label means only that the range descends that low (down to a low D in fact), and has nothing to do with the vocal style.
If it doesn't work, it wouldn't prove your point that it's impossible, only that I'm inept, or else that I simply failed this time around. I heard melodies jumping off the pages of his books, and I wanted to write them down. I've tried to remain faithful to his work, not changing the words or the implied tone, as I heard it. Time will tell.
Of course I understand irony. That's exactly why I placed that hilarious poem right in the middle, the only one spoken (by me), as a way of poking fun of myself and clearing the air. Geez...
I'm curious, since you apparently believe that any attempts at poetic interpretation are, ipso facto, pretentious and doomed to failure, how do you feel about others reading Buk's words aloud? Is Harry Dean Stanton also on your intellectual enemies list?
@bospress.net: After 6 months, Harper Collins finally told me that Bukowski rights are handled by Ecco. I was put in touch with someone who has placed the proposal before Linda B, so it's in her hands. I don't expect them to take any interest in it as a business project, and I'm looking for an up-front payment. My pockets aren't deep, and are full of holes, so I hope their asking price doesn't bankrupt me. If this doesn't work out, the piece will sit on the shelf until the copyrights expire, ~2060, when my grandchildren can dust it off.
Is my project any better than the Vehar/Ruminski "art songs"? I certainly hope so! I wanted to avoid anything like that, and from the beginning I've worked with a singer who is, to say the least, completely different, a reknowned composer and jazz pianist with extensive experience singing rock & roll. The "baritone" label means only that the range descends that low (down to a low D in fact), and has nothing to do with the vocal style.
If it doesn't work, it wouldn't prove your point that it's impossible, only that I'm inept, or else that I simply failed this time around. I heard melodies jumping off the pages of his books, and I wanted to write them down. I've tried to remain faithful to his work, not changing the words or the implied tone, as I heard it. Time will tell.
Of course I understand irony. That's exactly why I placed that hilarious poem right in the middle, the only one spoken (by me), as a way of poking fun of myself and clearing the air. Geez...
I'm curious, since you apparently believe that any attempts at poetic interpretation are, ipso facto, pretentious and doomed to failure, how do you feel about others reading Buk's words aloud? Is Harry Dean Stanton also on your intellectual enemies list?
@bospress.net: After 6 months, Harper Collins finally told me that Bukowski rights are handled by Ecco. I was put in touch with someone who has placed the proposal before Linda B, so it's in her hands. I don't expect them to take any interest in it as a business project, and I'm looking for an up-front payment. My pockets aren't deep, and are full of holes, so I hope their asking price doesn't bankrupt me. If this doesn't work out, the piece will sit on the shelf until the copyrights expire, ~2060, when my grandchildren can dust it off.
mjp
Founding member
That's because you're an idiot.
Douchebag.
That must be it.
You call it ignorance, I call it experience. Douchebag.
You're too stupid to understand the underlying point, so I suggest that you go piss up a rope and pray for enlightenment.
Hope is a beautiful and ultimately tragic thing.
Ooh! Rock & roll! It's going to be even shittier than I'd imagined!
Thanks Professor Douchebag.
And that you're a douchebag. Don't forget that.
You are an unbelievably pretentious bag of stale donkey piss. A really large, unwieldy bag of stale donkey piss that takes four grown men to empty.
Covering his work with your shit is not "faithful," it's destruction. You don't understand that because you are an idiot.
Douchebag.
Jesus christ, you're not finished yet?
What the fuck are you talking about, Goober?
I'm curious; have you always been a douchebag?
Is a portrait of Judy Garland tattooed on your ass cheek?
But in this post here you say they are deep. Which can only lead one to believe, ipso facto, that you are a liar as well as a douchebag.
Your grandchildren will throw it into a big dumpster along with the rest of your shit the day after they bury you, you delusional cocksucker. Then they will have a big party and spend all the money you leave to them on a keg of beer and two pizzas.
Yes, I have seen your future. I am an oracle. I am cool water for your thirsty soul. Yet you reject me. I weep. I weep.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
A very lengthy applause and loud cheers!
mjp
Founding member
If you want to experience the sheer musical genius that is being discussed here, check out some excerpts from PLAY THE PIANO DRUNK LIKE A PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT (2007-10).
That noodling, masturbatory auditory torture just screams "Bukowski!" doesn't it? No?
The genius that is John Charles Melcher. How could I have ever doubted him.
[Image removed at Mr. Melcher's request.]
That noodling, masturbatory auditory torture just screams "Bukowski!" doesn't it? No?
The genius that is John Charles Melcher. How could I have ever doubted him.
[Image removed at Mr. Melcher's request.]
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
:eek:
A Danish singer sampled him as well. The song is called "I Have Nothing To Say" as can be found here:
http://download.duck.fm/Bellefast
http://download.duck.fm/Bellefast
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
Bukowski is dead. Only a living poet should have his poems set to music and only when the composer and poet work together. Still, it usually does not work, but changing a poets inflection and meaning once they are dead is wrong. now if they are Public Domain, then they are fair game...
Bill
Bill